It explains a lot about the financial pickle Washington is in that Port Orchard is celebrating having $700,000 set aside in the just-passed state budget for an upgrade to the De Kalb Street Pier.

That’s not to say it isn’t a worthy project, nor is this a criticism of the city for requesting the funding or the 26th District legislative delegation for managing to get it included in the final budget deal passed during last week’s special session.

It’s simply an observation that it seems rather unfair that a person living in Walla Walla should be taxed for something from which they’ll derive no benefit whatsoever.

The answer, of course, is that we’re undoubtedly returning the favor by paying for a slab of pork they’re getting out of the budget, too.

In fact, given the nature of politics, it’s entirely possible our representatives horse-traded their support for any number of projects in other districts in return for the votes needed to build our new dock.

Washington state doesn’t really distinguish between discretionary and non-discretionary spending, but it’s clear these sorts of expenditures fall into the former category, resulting in a much larger tax bill for everyone than would be necessary if communities just paid for their own goodies.

Add to that the $25,000 Port Orchard paid this year for a political lobbyist, whose signature accomplishment during the session was having scored the money for the pier, and it’s obvious we didn’t exactly get something for nothing.

In fact, all we did was shift much of the burden for our pet project onto taxpayers living elsewhere in exchange for agreeing to be taxed for theirs.

In a good year, a city of Port Orchard’s size and influence probably breaks about even under such a system and comes out a loser in years where we don’t get any pork thrown our way.

Welcome to the wonderful world of politics.